Two Questions and a Comment

How is Adagio pronounced. Is the "G" hard or soft? Don't judge me too harshly for asking.

Is the water considered boiling the second the teapot hisses? I stick a thermometer in real quick after it whistles but it tends to be around 176ish each time.. I know that heat escapes once I open the lid.. but that much, that quick? ..does that mean my thermometer is no longer calibrated correctly, or my teapot busted, or both? Or shall I let it whistle longer? Though, I heard it's not good to boil it for too long.

The water should be realllllly boiling. Not hissing. Let it go to the full boil.

Also, if you need to calibrate, do it at freezing versus boiling since unless you are at sea level, the boiling point will be lower. And allowing some steam to escape through the spout will not cause a decrease in the water temp by anything appreciable.

If I pour boiling water into a cooling vessel, the temp will drop by 20-30 degrees fairly quickly.

Don't feel bad about the pronunciation - it's Italian, and a music term at that, so not necessarily something that comes naturally for pronunciation. Chip's right, on both pronunciation and accent. Yay for dialect training actually being useful!

That article about the "30 sec. decaf" myth is quite helpful. Even more surprising and helpful is knowing now that every kind of tea, (white, green, oolong and black) has about the same amount of caffeine! No wonder drinking white tea shortly before bedtime kept me just as awake as a cup of black.